The present invention broadly relates to an apparatus and method for supplying printed products to a continuously operating processing line and, more specifically, pertains to a new and improved construction of an apparatus for supplying printed products to a continuously operating processing line, especially for supplying folded printed products or so-called signatures to a collator or collector device.
Generally speaking, the apparatus of the present invention comprises a plurality of stack spaces or chutes for accommodating one stack each of interrelated or mutually identical printed products or signatures to be supplied to the processing line, a supply device for transferring the printed products or signatures singly to the processing line, and a powered feed mechanism provided for each stack space or chute for feeding an associated one of the stacks to the supply device.
Such processing lines, for instance collating or assembling apparatuses, collective staplers or binders and the like, usually have a plurality of stack spaces or chutes arranged in relatively dense sequence along the processing line. These stack spaces or chutes have a relatively limited capacity and, if the continuous mode of operation is not to be interrupted, must also be refilled as soon as the supply in one of the stack spaces runs out. When there are a great number of stack spaces, this requires a considerable amount of effort even when the work is partly mechanized. In principle, the capacity of the stack spaces could be increased in order to lengthen the time interval before exhaustion of the content of a stack space. On the other hand, most stack spaces are set up to accommodate reclining stacks with standing or upright printed products or folded signatures in order to facilitate removal of individual copies from the stack. This means that an increase in the capacity of the stack space would lead to a corresponding lengthening of the stack space in the horizontal direction and therefore to an increase of the spatial requirements.